Share this:

Births aren’t always convenient. Such was the case with center Jonathan Goodwin, who flew to his home in South Carolina on Sunday for the birth of his third son, Cade Spencer. Goodwin then took a 5:40 a.m flight out of Columbia, connected in Atlanta and flew to SFO and arrived at 11 a.m. He then went to the 49ers’ facility.

“I got about four hours last night and a little sleep on the plane,” Goodwin remarked. “I’m starting to catch up.” Goodwin has had about seven hours of sleep over the past two nights.

His wife, Alneesa, and his older two sons stayed with Goodwin during the season in the Bay Area until about a month ago. Since the baby was due close to the Super Bowl, the family flew back to South Carolina so they could be closer to New Orleans, the site of this year’s Super Bowl. Knowing that Alneesa might not be able to fly to New Orleans from the Bay Area shortly after giving birth, the family went back to South Carolina to be closer to New Orleans.

Now that is advanced planning.

Goodwin planned on taking a flight later on Tuesday but he got too antsy. The game plan was calling him and he simply couldn’t resist.

“That was part of the reason I got back this morning, so I could work on Atlanta, look at film and see what our game plan might be,” Goodwin said. “I definitely wanted to look at them, because these opportunities … don’t come that often.”

Goodwin should know. He was in the NFC title game last year with the 49ers and won it all with the Saints a few years ago.